President Donald Trump’s move to decertify the Iranian nuclear Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), entered into a little over two years ago, was applauded by Israel, Saudi Arabia and a couple of Persian Gulf States, but by no one else. Quite the contrary, as the European and Asian co-signatories on the agreement, having failed to dissuade Trump, have clearly indicated that they will continue to abide by it. Also, the decision to kick the can down the road by giving Congress 60 days to increase pressure on Tehran in an attempt to include other issues beyond nuclear development like its ballistic missile program and labeling the country’s Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist group are likely to create confusion as Washington is unable to communicate directly with Iran. That uncertainty could possibly lead to a fraught-with-danger Iranian decision to withdraw completely from the agreement.

The Trump speech could reasonably be described as embracing an “Israel-First” and “Saudi-Second” perspective that might plausibly suggest that it was actually drafted by their respective foreign ministries. Contrary to Trump’s campaign pledges, it might also be characterized as an “America-Last” speech, since it actually encourages nuclear proliferation while rendering it even more difficult for anyone to respect the agreements entered into by the United States government.

Fred Kaplan sums up the speech’s fundamental dishonesty with considerable clarity by observing:

It flagrantly misrepresents what the deal was meant to do, the extent of Iran’s compliance, and the need for corrective measures. If he gets his way, he will blow up one of the most striking diplomatic triumphs of recent years, aggravate tensions in the Middle East, make it even harder to settle the North Korean crisis peacefully, and make it all but impossible for allies and adversaries to trust anything the United States says for as long as Trump is in office.”

Former senior CIA analyst Paul Pillar has also dissected the untruths and false analogies that made up the bulk of the Trump speech. In short, Pillar argues that the president is using faulty analysis to end a program that is working and that employs unprecedented intrusive inspections to guarantee that Iran can make no progress towards having a nuclear weapon for at least eight more years and quite likely for even longer. Against that, Iran could well end its cooperation and, out of fear of U.S. attack, might well turn towards possession of a nuclear arsenal to guarantee its own survival. Pillar calls ending JCPOA now because Iran just might develop a weapon after it expires in 2025 as “committing suicide because of fear of death.”

In a second highly partisan international action last week, the United States led a march out the door of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization due to its alleged “bias against Israel.” UNESCO had enraged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by declaring that the Old City of Hebron and the associated Cave of the Patriarchs on the West Bank is an endangered Palestinian world cultural heritage site. A few hundred Israeli settlers live in Hebron, guarded by the Israeli Army, amidst 200,000 Palestinians who, according to The Guardian, “have long lived under harsh restrictions in the city, which is one of the starkest symbols of the Israeli occupation.” The U.S. is also threatening to pull out of the U.N.’s Human Rights Council “to protect Israel.”

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley speaks during a meeting with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, not seen, in his residence in Jerusalem, Israel, June 7, 2017. (Debbie Hill/AP)

Taken together, the two decisions made by the White House indicate a shift in the foreign policy team advising the president. One must now acknowledge that America’s United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, apparently operating in collusion with former UN Ambassador John Bolton, has become the most influential foreign policy voice whispering in the president’s ear, quite possibly because she is saying exactly what he wants to hear in terms of simplistic but rarely reality-based responses to complex situations. That Haley, an inexperienced and instinctively aggressive ideologue who is closely aligned to Israeli thinking, should occupy such a position with an equally ignorant president ought to concern anyone who seeks to avoid a major conflagration with either Iran and North Korea, or even with both. Haley is also no friend of Russia, having once crudely advised Moscow to “choose to side with the civilized world.”

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford and Secretary of Defense James Mattis, apparently joined by National Security Council chair H.R. McMaster, urged renewal of the Iran certification based on the fact that Tehran was compliant but were overruled. Even Israel’s former National Security Adviser Uzi Arad had publicly urged both the White House and Congress not to reject the JCPOA. The emergence of Haley advised by Bolton is a shift to the right in an administration that is already leaning towards the military option as its preferred diplomatic tool, also suggesting somewhat ominously that neoconservative foreign policy is again dominant in Washington.

Other commentators including Eli Clifton, have observed that Trump might well have been heavily influenced by major Republican donors including Paul Singer, Bernard Marcus and Sheldon Adelson to step up the pressure on Iran. Adelson has, in fact, called for unilaterally “nuking” the Iranians. Marcus has said that “I think that Iran is the devil.”

The real objective of the Trump White House is not to “fix” the Iran deal, which would be impossible both because Iran and the other signatories would not agree to it and because there is nothing that needs repair. As Paul Pillar and Fred Kaplan note, it is working. The real objective is to blow up the agreement completely as it is an impediment to going to war and bringing about regime change in Tehran by force. That is what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Senators like John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Tom Cotton have been intent on doing and they have hardly been shy about expressing themselves. The choice is therefore quite simple. Do we Americans, 60% of whom support keeping the arrangement, want to maintain an inspection regime that deprives Iran of the ability to develop a nuclear weapon for the foreseeable future or do we want to go back to square one without any restrictions on what Tehran will choose to do. It would seem to me that the clear right choice is to stay the course.

Philip M. Giraldi is a former CIA counter-terrorism specialist and military intelligence officer who served nineteen years overseas in Turkey, Italy, Germany, and Spain. He was the CIA Chief of Base for the Barcelona Olympics in 1992 and was one of the first Americans to enter Afghanistan in December 2001. Phil is Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest, a Washington-based advocacy group that seeks to encourage and promote a U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East that is consistent with American values and interests.

American Herald Tribune is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 International License.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect MintPress News
editorial policy.

THERE IS NOT ONE PRODUCT MANUFACTURED OR DEVELOPED IN THE OUTLAW JEWISH STATE THAT COULDN’T BE MADE OR DEVELOPED IN A DOZEN OTHER COUNTRIES….AT FAR, FAR LOWER COST. VIRTUALLY EVERY “ISRAELI PRODUCT” IS MANUFACTURED UNDER LICENSE FROM CORPORATIONS OUTSIDE OF ISRAHELL.

YES, THE JEW-CORRUPTED US CONGRESS GIVES AMERICAN CORPORATIONS VERY, VERY SPECIAL INCENTIVES TO TRANSFER AMERICAN RESEARCH, AMERICAN PRODUCTION AND AMERICAN JOBS TO THE OUTLAW STATE OF ISRAEL.

REALITY IS THAT THE STATE OF ISRAEL CAN NOT EXIST EXCEPT AS A PARASITE ON THE UNITED STATES. BUT, THERE’S NOTHING NEW IN THAT – JUDAISM HAS LIVED FROM THE BLOOD OF HUMANITY FOR ITS ENTIRE EXISTENCE. AS MARK TWAIN, VOLTAIRE, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN AND MANY OTHERS HAVE SAID………….JUDAISM IS A CULT-URE OF PARASITES/VAMPIRES.

THE “AID PACKAGE” TO THE JEWISH STATE IS ONLY A SMALL PART OF THAT STATE’S COST TO THE AMERICAN TAXPAYER…………

While so many Americans are subsisting on food stamps, losing their homes, and accumulating credit card debt they will never be able to pay off, the US is giving Israel $3 billion in direct foreign aid every year and, according to Congressman James Traficant, another $12-17 billion in indirect aid such as valuable military equipment deemed “scrapped,” loan guarantees, and preferential contracts. Israel is an affluent country with more than 10,000 millionaires and, according to the International Monetary Fund, was one of the few economies that weathered the 2008 financial storm nearly unscathed.

And a short memo the US government; the American people have gotten sick and tired of US aid, both financial and military, “never being enough” for this wretchedly apartheid, self-declared theocracy with nuclear weapons which is what Israel has become in the 21st century.

As you are aware (or should be aware) all aid to Israel is completely illegal under the Symington Amendment, which prohibits any aid from going to a nuclear armed country which refuses to become signatory to the NNPT, and refuses to have its nuclear facilities inspected.

Israel comes in at a big fat zero-compliance on both issues, so what is the deal here, please?!?

The victim card has been played once too often by an Israeli government which spits in the face of US officials, and tells them it’s raining.

And did I mention serial genocide against the Palestinians, coupled with brisk annexations of property in the West Bank and East Jerusalem? The Israeli government will not listen to anything approaching a two state solution; it wants territory, and to get rid of as many Palestinians as it thinks it can, and by any means necessary.

It is high time for all US aid, both military and financial, to stop now, because this is the only language the Israeli government understands.

No more wars for the crap hole state of Israel. And, that is PRECISELY what this greasy neocon obsession to drag the US military into Syria is all about.

No more wars FOR ISRAEL. Instead, let’s wage war ON ISRAEL and wipe these evil snakes off the face of the planet.

Strawman

It is unfortunate that your last sentence marred an excellent post. Please think it through before calling for war, on anyone.

gmathol

That sewage area which is infested by Jews who call the area Israel has to be removed from Palestine. Move them to Britain or USA.

NobodysaysBOO

WE DEFEATED hillary and VOTED for MAGA not israelies.
Trump has flopped on his WORD, everyone see’s it now it is on with MAGA with Trump or WITHOUT HIS LEADERSHIP.
Bannon will NOT take orders from Trump!

tapatio

Is there ANYone here who believed either HELLary’s or Donny Drumpf’s campaign lies?

Strawman

Excellent article by a writer who knows his business. For discussion’s sake, though, is it putting too fine a point on it by suggesting that EVERY figure on the national stage is compelled to hew foremost to the interests of Israel?

Considering the power of AIPAC (and its fellows), any national level politician, it seems, could find no quicker path to obscurity than to criticize Israeli policies.

The recent devastating car bombing in Mogadishu has been blamed by Somali officials on the terrorist group al-Shabab. But the violence (and famine) that have beset Somalia have deeper roots — decades of imperialism and intervention, and use of Somalia as a staging grounds for the “war on terror.”

Buried among statistics on gun profits and lobbying efforts is the terrifying reality of just how unique America’s gun obsession and associated violence are. And the equally terrifying plan by the NRA to “normalize” gun possession in nearly every nook and cranny of American life.

U.S. campaigns for regime change characteristically focus on the “madness” of the “dictators” to be toppled. In the case of North Korea, the narrative is spiced by the country’s developing nuclear capabilities — which North Korea views as its main line of defense against . . . regime change.

Aung Su Kyi, the leader of Myanmar, has been accused of “legitimizing genocide” against the country’s Rohingya Muslims, despite being a Nobel Prize laureate. Her country’s military has massacred thousands of Rohingya, leading some to call for Kyi’s Nobel Prize to be revoked.